Four Seasons
by A Fire in the Attic
Summary: If she and Derek were the main characters of a tv show, Erica imagines it would take four seasons to actually get them together.


**Prompt**: Derica: 3 years after Erica returns to Beacon Hills without Boyd, Derek finally tells her how he really feels about her. (bonus points for an Erisaac brotp :)))

**Notes**: This is super fluffy. There's not any angst at all.

**Word Count**: 4.7k, give or take a few.

* * *

If she and Derek were the main characters of a tv show, Erica imagines it would take four seasons to actually get them together.

The first season, of course, would be from the time they first met and she was thrust into the world of werewolves (willingly, mind you), kissed once, and then a motley of things happened with other people and kanimas, until Erica was running off with Boyd.

Season two would be the months in the bank vault with Boyd while Derek did whatever and then…getting taken out of the vault, out of Beacon Hills. She's never really sure where the alpha pack had taken her; she only knows they implanted memories that made her want to move to _Chicago_ of all places, and so that season would be the year she spent there. Probably interspersed with Derek and the others fighting off the alpha pack.

Maybe it's like, if you kill the alphas, the memories break, or maybe if they weren't there constantly fixing her brain, it started to break down. In any case, she remembered and went back to Beacon Hills. Season three is her readjusting to pack life and her parents. Not that things would ever be the same, seeing how now Scott and Derek shared the role as alpha and the alpha twins, Ethan and Aiden, had defected to be with the teens they loved. Erica was thrown for a loop, but she's figured out the dynamic by now.

Season four is…well.

* * *

Erica isn't a morning person. Isaac is.

It's not actually as bad as she thought it would be to live with someone on a different schedule, mostly because Isaac can be impossibly quiet. He wakes up at six o'clock every day and has breakfast ready for her by eight, when she rolls out of bed to get ready for classes. He's not _chipper,_ mostly because he's _Isaac_. Still, he hands her a plate of eggs and toast with a smile, every morning. She doesn't get it.

It's comfortable to sit at the table with him. He's awake but not annoying, just drumming his fingers while he reads his textbook. He's still really bad at chemistry, but he's determined to follow Scott to med school.

Sometimes Erica thinks about going, too. She'd like to be a pediatrician, or maybe research epilepsy. But her parents certainly can't afford to send her to med school, and she'd never ask Derek. Isaac collects insurance money and works with Deaton.

(Erica has a job, too. She got one at a department store, selling make up to girls who remind her of herself in their quest to be beautiful. At first, she tried to point them to colors that looked good on them, but eventually switched to asking what colors appealed to them. After all, the only person who needed to be satisfied with their faces were they themselves.)

Right now she's undeclared, but she's thinking about Melissa McCall, who had always been kind to her, had always treated her like a friend instead of a patient, had always been warm to her when she found out about lycanthropy, had welcomed her back to the pack with a smile and open arms.

She could be a nurse.

"Do you want me to drive to school?" Isaac asks when she finishes her breakfast. "You seem really tired."

"Okay," she agrees. She'd been up late the night before, writing a paper for honors comp (a class she's still proud she qualified for). It's a good paper, of course, but she's lacking on the sleep. "I just need to get dressed."

"Or you could go like that," he says, shrugging as he floats out of the room.

Erica looks down at herself, wearing one of Isaac's shirts and a pair of his boxers. "How do your clothes keep ending up in my room?" she wonders.

He just laughs.

* * *

In season one, Derek told her he had someone else in mind for her. He'd meant Scott or Stiles at the time, but in the end she'd paired up with Boyd. They'd been close friends, pairing off after training sessions to drink milkshakes or go for a run. Maybe it seemed more like they were lovers, but they'd never been more.

In season two, Boyd told her he was asexual in the darkness of the vault. "Or something like that, I think," he whispered. "It's not you. I think you're beautiful." She'd said, "It's okay." And it had been. (Stiles says Derek dated a teacher while she was gone, a Ms. Jennifer Blake. Then she turned out to be a dark druid, and Derek never talks about her. Not to Erica, anyway.)

In season three, Derek was happy she was alive, but careful, always so careful, to keep her at an arms length. Back then, he kept every one there.

In season four, he moves toward them.

* * *

She does get dressed, if only because she knows boxers are considered inappropriate even at community college. She wears jeans and a deep v-neck shirt that probably also belongs to Isaac, if the way it hangs on her is any indication. She doesn't really care. There's no one at the college she wants to impress, anyway.

In class, she hands in her paper and slumps in her seat, boredly typing notes on her computer while her comp teacher talks about persuasive writing.

Erica thinks this is the kind of thing Boyd would enjoy: arguing in silence with words on paper, if he were in school.

Instead, Boyd joined the military. He's been stationed in Colorado for the last year and a half, working in cargo transport. The two of them write letters and e-mails to each other all the time. They text, too, but Boyd prefers to see paragraphs build up on the page, and Erica is happy to oblige.

(Last week, he'd written her a letter telling her about a female officer he liked to hang out with. "She reminds me of you," he writes. "Only less intense." It made her laugh and hold the paper close to her heart.

She wrote back to him that being asexual doesn't mean he's aromantic, and maybe he should keep his options open.)

From the beginning, Isaac and Boyd have been her closest friends, boys she would lay her life down for and cuddle with after nearly ripping their faces off with moon fever. She loves them with all her heart. It's with that thought that she begins reading an e-mail from Boyd instead of listening to her professor.

_The summers are beautiful here. I can actually walk around in t-shirts without_  
_ people staring at me wondering how I'm not freezing. I still smell lust sometimes,_  
_ though, which is really weird. I never really felt like I was attractive to anyone until_  
_ I got here, and now it's like I can't escape it. _

_I'm glad you're doing okay in classes. I know you were worried. Isaac told me. He _  
_said you've been staying up really late to work on things, too, like that was a bad _  
_thing. I told him you think better late at night. He'll probably get it one day, but _  
_right now he doesn't really understand how you can stay up so late when he falls_  
_ asleep at nine. _

_I guess it makes sense, though, because the two of you are so much alike. It's _  
_probably weird to be so different in just one way. _

_Derek called me yesterday and wanted me to tell you he's sorry for yelling at you _  
_last time you and Isaac went home. He was stressed about something Stiles and Scott did, apparently. I don't know why he didn't just man up and call you himself,_  
_ but it is what it is. _

_I checked out Imagine Dragons, too, by the way. They're okay, but I think that's a _  
_band more for you and Isaac. Their lyrics are oddly opposite of the music and for _  
_some reason that doesn't really work for me. _

_I don't have much time, but I'll write to you later. Love you, E._

_Oh, and my "relationship" with Irene is not a relationship. Stop that._

Erica's smiling by the end of it, and she pulls out her phone to text Derek quickly. "I can't believe you sent an apology through Boyd." She turns back to her computer and types up a quick response to Boyd.

_That sounds really great. And buddy, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're _  
_pretty hot. Of course all the girls and boys are checking you out. _

_I'm still worried about it, honestly. Isaac helps calm me down a lot, though. Just _  
_sharing an apartment with him is really good for my stress levels. He makes me _  
_breakfast like, every day, you know? That's really nice. I've never had anything like_  
_ that before. Sometimes I wish I could look at him as more than a brother, but…nah._

_ Derek is an idiot. _

_I do get what you mean about the music, even if I disagree. I think it makes it more compelling, but to each their own. What new tunes have you heard in Colorado? Last time my family drove through there, all we could get was 80s rock and country. _

_Love you, too, snooks. _

_I'm just saying you should broaden your definition of relationship! What if she's ace, too? You guys could totally hang. And cuddle. You're such a cuddler, omg._

She has a text back from Derek that just reads, "are you really surprised," to which she responds, "no."

There's a lot of weird guilt between the two of them. Erica hates that she left; Derek hates that he let her. Truthfully, she'd be angry if he had tried to stop her. She likes the feeling of self-ownership and knowing that even if she's his beta, he'll listen when she asks for something.

Still, all the guilt means that when they've messed up with each other (again) they apologize through other people. Usually, Derek goes through Isaac and Erica goes through Stiles, who for some reason ended up as Derek's best friend after everything that went down. This time, of course, Derek had offended both Erica _and_ Isaac, so his usual mode was out.

Her phone vibrates in her lap, and she looks down to see a new message from Derek. "Will you guys be home for the moon?"

"Yes," she replies quickly. Even if Derek hasn't (indirectly) apologized to Isaac yet, she'll drag him along. They haven't spent a full moon apart since she got back, and she's not about to break tradition. She'd say Isaac is like her twin, but having experienced the way Aiden and Ethan actually seem to read each other's minds, she's a little hesitant. But they're close to it. She likes that.

"Good. See you this weekend," Derek sends back.

She smiles and notices it's almost time to leave class. That's excellent, because up next is lunch, and she's totally starving.

The teacher dismisses them after explaining their next assignment and Erica rushes out of class. Isaac will be waiting for her in the cafeteria, inexplicably having decent food from off campus. She never can figure out how he makes time for it, but he manages it daily.

Sure enough, Isaac is waiting with an entire pepperoni pizza and a two-liter of Pepsi. "You're in a good mood," he comments when she slides into the seat across from him. "Did Derek finally apologize?"

"Through Boyd," she says, smiling and snagging a slice.

"He got us this, too," he says, gesturing to the food. "He knows the way to _my_heart at least."

There's a weird implication in the way he just said that but she just brushes it off. Isaac is her best friend, but he's also pretty weird sometimes. Usually, she just does her best not to question it. "Well, at least he ordered Domino's and not Pizza Hut."

"That's for your benefit, pizza snob," he replies, rolling his eyes.

"Someone has to remind you of quality," she mutters.

Isaac steals the slice she'd been aiming for. "It's pizza. Who cares?"

She leans across the table and bites off a hunk of crust, narrowly missing his fingers. "I do."

"Ugh, watch it," he snarls, kicking her under the table. "And don't get sauce on my shirt."

* * *

Full moons have never been fun.

In season one, she tried to kill Derek and Isaac.

In the vault with Boyd and later Cora, they couldn't shift. Full moons were agonizing, enough to make her cry and howl. The pull was there but she couldn't do anything about it, like an itch on her back she couldn't reach. The first night they released her, she had a false memory of an anchor implanted, and somehow that was enough to keep from murdering everyone her first night out. She doesn't really understand why that happened, because the alpha pack seemed hell-bent on the destruction of Derek's pack. Maybe it was just so Derek wouldn't find her. Those months had still been lonely, impossible. That was season two in its whole: loneliness.

When she finally remembered, she came back and had to find a new anchor. In the end it was pack, mostly Isaac and Boyd, but Stiles and Derek meant a lot, too. But things had still been awkward and she didn't remember how to run under the moon with friends. Isaac pinned her down a lot at first to keep her from snapping, but eventually, she got it under control.

But now, season four, she's happy when she's a wolf. Free.

* * *

"I wish Boyd was coming," Isaac sighs. He's slumped in the passenger seat of Erica's ten-year-old Mazda, which they're taking because Erica refuses to ride on the back of Isaac's motorcycle for the three-hour trip to Beacon Hills.

She looks over at him, smiling. "Maybe some time we can drive down to Colorado for the moon, yeah?"

"Yeah," he says. "That would be cool. If you asked Derek he'd probably drive us."

"In the mom car?" she snorts. "No thanks."

"It gets the best mileage," he points out. He kicks his feet up on the dashboard, which can't be comfortable, considering the length of his legs. His knees are at eye level.

She scoffs. "And we'll look like a little league team."

"Sounds fun," he counters.

"Anyway, why should I ask him? He likes you the most."

"As his _brother_," he emphasizes, looking at her meaningfully.

She resolutely keeps her attention on the road. "And sisters get special treatment? How would you know?"

"He doesn't see you as a sister," Isaac replies, rolling his eyes.

Clearly, he's trying to imply something. She thinks about the pizza and whatever he was saying about getting to his heart. There's a connection here, she just can't put her finger on it.

So she shrugs and turns the music on. "I'll ask," she says, and that conversation ends.

They make it in record time, the roads surprisingly clear for a Friday afternoon. The full moon isn't until Sunday, but they'll stay with Derek for the weekend.

Derek is still living in the loft he got a few years ago, but the place is cleaned up quite a bit now. He even owns the loft next to his, so the pack has somewhere to stay when they visit. Isaac and Erica will share a bed, just like they always do.

Isaac lopes up the stairs, apparently unconcerned that he's left his overnight bag in the car.

Erica carries it in for him, though, because he'll whine if he has to go back out and get it. This way is better, really. (Plus, if she plays her cards right, she'll end up sleeping in his clothes, anyway.)

Cora greets Isaac at the door with a hug and kiss on the cheek before walking down the stairs to meet Erica. "Hey," she says, smiling and hugging her quickly. "Can I take that for you?" She doesn't wait for a response, just grabbing the bags and hurrying back up the stairs. "Hurry up, the pizza got here five minutes ago."

She grins and jogs after her. There's really no point in hurrying, because she'll just steal Isaac's pizza if there's none left for her. He'll probably let her without complaint.

Inside, half the pack is spread across the living room eating. Isaac has wedged himself between Scott and Allison and Stiles is gesturing widely as he explains something to Cora (who had apparently just thrown their bags into the hole in the wall.)

Erica smiles a little helplessly. Lydia, Jackson, Danny, and the twins are all east coasters now, and coming home for the full moon just isn't possible. But they'll all be back in the summer, which will make these pack hang outs even better.

"Saved you a slice," Derek says, sidling up to her with a plate.

"Thanks," she says, grinning at him. She takes the plate in one hand and wraps her other arm around him to pull him close for a second. "I missed your frowning face."

"Ha," he mutters. He squeezes her tightly before stepping back and scowling at her. "You aren't funny."

She shrugs, unconcerned, and scarfs down the pizza before claiming a spot on the couch. She looks at Derek plaintively until he sits down next to her.

"Boyd says you're doing okay in school?" he says, settling in.

She gives him points for effort, but there's no need to ask her about school if he already knows how she's doing. Still, she rolls with it. "Yeah, pretty good. How have you been?"

He shrugs. "Okay, I guess. Stiles said I should try to find a hobby, so I picked up baking…"

"No kidding?" she says, grinning. "It will be nice to have another pack member who's competent in the kitchen."

"Hey, I can cook," Stiles protests, rolling into the conversation unabashedly. "Just because we're not all culinary geniuses like _you_…"

"I will never cook you breakfast again," Isaac promises.

"Fine, fine, I'm eating my words," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, and that's it," Isaac grumbles before returning his attention to whatever Scott and Allison are saying.

"So he'll be making breakfast for you by Monday, right?" Stiles says, grinning over at her.

"Oh, probably tonight if I asked," she agrees.

Cora prods Derek suddenly and sends him a meaningful look. "Stiles, pay attention to _me_. Derek, didn't you have something you wanted to show Erica?"

Erica looks at him with interest. "Yeah?"

He gapes at Cora and shakes his head a little before looking back to Erica and shrugging. "In the kitchen?" He says it like he's not sure, but stands anyway.

"Okay," she says. She stands up to follow him and takes the slice of pizza Isaac is holding out to her as she passes him. "Thanks, babe."

"Mmhmm," Isaac says, but he's watching Allison demonstrate the proper way to tie a tourniquet, of all things. She's not sure he's even aware of the fact he just gave away his pizza.

She eats it anyway. There's still one more box, after all, and what's Isaac's is hers. Vice versa, too. She thinks about the early days of being a werewolf, when he would sneak in through her window and sleep in her bed just so they could feel like pack, when he would hug her in the backseat of Derek's car and rub his face all over her neck, like they were cats.

Those days were…good.

(She _also_ remembers the way Derek used to roll his eyes at them, too. "Undignified," he'd muttered when he'd walked in on them wrestling one afternoon.)

In the kitchen, Derek leans against a counter, arms braced behind him. He looks shy and nervous, which is weird and adorable, mostly. "So…Um. Boyd is doing well, right?"

"Yeah," she says. She leans against the counter next to him. In her experience Derek is more likely to share information with people he doesn't have to look at directly. "He's probably going to have a new cuddle buddy, soon."

"You miss him, huh?" Derek says. He doesn't look at her, but he's relaxing, so it looks like she was right about the line of sight.

"I do," she agrees. Without really thinking about it, she edges closer to him until their hips are touching. "He's one of my best friends."

"I miss him, too," he admits. He runs a hand through his hair, and when he braces it against the counter again, he rests it behind her.

She takes it as permission to cuddle and moves until they're pressed tight against each other. "Isaac and I were wondering if we could get to Colorado for a full moon sometime. So he's not alone, you know?"

"I'm sure we can work something out. Maybe over the break."

"Yeah, that sounds really good," she says. So Isaac had been right about her being able to get Derek to agree. That probably means something, given Isaac's tone of voice. She'll think about it later, maybe. But for now, she should probably try to smooth things over. Again. "Anyway, I guess I should apologize directly. I should have realized you were having a bad day last month."

"I shouldn't have taken it out on you," he says, waving his other hand. "Scott and Stiles are always going to be difficult and that's never going to be your fault."

"Well, you're not wrong." She rests her head on his shoulder. She's pretty sure there's nothing for Derek to show her. Or maybe there is, and he's just shy about it. Either way, these are good conversations to have. "So, what have you been baking?"

He perks up next to her, and when she looks up at him, he's smiling. "Cookies, mostly. Cora really likes the peanut butter cookie recipe I found. We've gone through like five jars of peanut butter this month."

"Buy the industrial sized stuff," Erica suggests, grinning. She can just picture Cora making _that face_, the one that gets Derek to do whatever she wants him to. "So, how are you holding up with all the cookies?" She pats his abs, which are just as hard as she remembers them. If he's been breaking his diet, it doesn't show.

"I have to work out twice as much as usual," he sighs.

"What a good brother," she teases. Her hand is resting on his stomach, and she rubs a little, because, like Stiles, she finds it hilarious that Derek always curls in and tries to get away.

Sure enough, he moves out of her reach. "Cut that out," he mumbles, blushing a little. "Should have never let you two find that out."

"What? You _totally_ like it," she teases. "I can tell."

"No," he says, crossing his arms.

She giggles and drops her hands. She plays with the hem of Isaac's shirt and raises an eyebrow. "When did _you_ become such a teddy bear? A few years ago, you would have bit my arm off for touching you at all."

"Things are just…right, now. Mostly," he says, scowling. "And I'm not a teddy bear."

"Why only mostly?" she asks curiously. Things seem pretty good from her perspective, though she does wish Boyd were here, too.

He shrugs non-noncommittally. "Just get lonely, I guess."

"You should visit me and Isaac," she suggests. It would be nice for their apartment to smell like Derek. Kind of like a mini-pack.

"Um, yeah, sure," he hedges. His heart is kind of racing, which is weird because outwardly he looks absolutely zen.

"Are you okay?" she wonders.

He shrugs. "Are you and Isaac dating?" he asks rather than answer her.

"A bit non sequitur," she says, raising an eyebrow. "But no. We'd tell you and Boyd first. I think Isaac is still trying to hook up with Allison and Scott, and I'm…um…" She blushes. There's no good way to say you're holding a torch for your alpha.

"Oh," Derek says, relaxing slightly. "Me, too."

"You wanna get with Scott and Allison?" she teases. And thank goodness for that chance—the other option, of course, was him pressuring her to find out what she meant by, "I'm…um…"

"No," he says, rolling his eyes. "I'm waiting for someone. Like you."

Her stomach clenches and she grimaces without meaning to. Of _course_ he likes someone. But, thinking of the last fight they had, she covers it quickly with a smile. "Who?"

He shrugs and blushes.

"Tell me," she whines, moving over to him and leaning close. "Tell me, _please_."

Derek leans back into the counter. "No," he says.

"Please?" She's not really aware of how close they are until their hands touch and her feet are between his. She looks _right_ up at his face. She freezes. Breathing seems impossible. The last time they were this close, she had her legs wrapped around his hips and he was kissing her.

His hands move to catch hold of hers.

Her lips part and she smiles. "Hey," she says, drawing out the word. "What's up?"

"My pack is home," he murmurs. They're close enough that she can feel him breathing. His heart is still thumping at that same rate, and dimly she realizes hers has sped to match it.

"We are," she agrees. "This is home."

"Yes," he says.

When he kisses her she's surprised and unsurprised all at once—surprised because he's never given her any sort of indication before, unsurprised because what else could the last ten minutes have been? And it's both weird and not—his lips are so soft and his beard is just…not. The contrast is…something. She tilts her head back and pushes up, closer. Their teeth clack in her enthusiasm, and he laughs into her mouth. It's surreal.

"Are you sure," she tries to say, but it just comes out as grunting and enthusiastic kissing. He responds in kind, so she figures he probably is.

She tugs her hands out of his and rests wraps them around his neck. He needs to be _closer_.

His hands move to rest on her hips, fingers drumming against her skin, a soft pat-pat of _I'm here_.

* * *

Later that night, she wakes up and punches Isaac awake. "_That's _what you meant?" she hisses.

"What?" he mumbles sleepily. He blinks at her from under the covers and readjusts his pillow.

"When you said Derek knew the way to _your_ heart and that he didn't think of me as a sister," she snaps.

"Oh," he says, and rolls over. "It's not my fault you're stupid."

"I hate you so much," she says, turning her back to him.

"Sure," he says, and immediately falls back asleep.

* * *

Derek drives the two of them to Colorado the day before the full moon he next month. Isaac sprawls in the backseat, hugging a pillow and dozing. He keeps waking up to text Scott, though, and mumbling jokes from Stiles when he gets them. It's adorable because it's Isaac.

"Thanks," Erica says, when they cross the California border.

"He'd do anything for you," Isaac mumbles before Derek can respond.

Derek just smiles and shrugs at her.

* * *

(In season four, they're home.)

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Teen Wolf!


End file.
